Atropa Belladonna
by Smoochynose
Summary: Like all disasters of the weird, the bizarre, and the dangerous it happened in potions.


_**Atropa belladonna**_

Like all disasters of the weird, the bizarre, and the dangerous it happened in potions. More specifically it happened in the joint double lesson of the fifth year Gryffindors and Slytherins first thing on a Monday morning. And, like most things of a weird, bizarre, and dangerous nature it involved Harry Potter. Only this time, because of an unfortunate pairing made by Snape, it also involved Draco Malfoy.

Hermione had only really being paying attention to their hissed argument out of the corner of her eye. It was just like Harry to argue rather than pay attention to the lesson when it came to Malfoy. However the sudden movement Harry made of swiping up the thin slices of gurdyroot and throwing them into the cauldron of the mild restorative draught they were brewing caught the full force of her attention, not only due to the rising voices of their argument but due the deafening boom it produced.

The force of the explosion sent Harry and Draco slamming into the table behind them, knocking Neville's (who still working on the memory potion from the week before) cauldron over and mixing its contents with whatever had come flying out of their own on them, which apart from scolding them appeared to be doing nothing.

Well nothing until Draco groaned as he stirred. There was a moment of confusion on his face for a brief second before there was a look that Hermione had never seen on the boy's face before. His eyes seemed to both soften in shape and darken to a fierce stormy colour at the same time, whilst a wide grin appeared on his face. That in itself should have set off major warning bells. And if that didn't then what happened next certainly did.

Draco leapt to his feet, still dripping in potion, and for lack of a better description _twirled. _"Whoo! I'm still older. And taller. Haha! In your face, Ciel!"

Hermione wasn't sure what she was expecting in reply to that but it definitely wasn't Harry, potion sticking his hair down to his face and entirely covering his right eye to tackling Draco to the ground, completely ignoring Snape's shouts and orders.

Harry slapped Draco round the face. "What part of 'do not touch' do you not understand, Alois?" He demanded coldly, before raising to his feet, brushing some of the excess potion off his robes contemptuously, and straightening to an almost regal stance. The expression on his face much colder and closed off than she knew her friend could have achieved. Definitely a regal stance then.

At this point Hermione had come to the conclusion that the potions had somehow made the two enemies possessed. It was the only explanation for the sudden personality changes and the names she could come up with on the spot. Sure given a few more minutes Hermione could have come up with various other theories but the disaster that was already in the process suddenly took a spin for the worse.

Alois looked slightly hurt at the chastisement before he grinned wickedly and threw himself at Ciel, hanging off his waist, looking up at the boy with wide eyes. "Don't you love me, Ciel?" he asked.

"No." The younger boy rebuffed, trying to push the clingy boy off him. Alois just wrapped his arms around his neck instead.

"Do I annoy you?" he asked, before biting the lobe of his ear.

Several of the girls blushed, Lavender going as far as to squeal. All Hermione knew was that when Harry was himself again he was going to have nightmares.

Ciel's face had the slightest tinge of pink to it before he roughly pushed Alois off him. "Get off me you degenerate reprobate."

Hermione's eyebrow's rose. Not only had Harry's personality changed but apparently his vocabulary had as well. Not to mention how cold his voice was.

"Potter. Fifty points from Gryffindor for ruining the potion. Now you and Malfoy go to the hospital wing this instant," snapped Snape. There was a pause filled with momentary silence, one where Alois and Ciel seemed to become aware of the class staring at them.

The silence broke as Alois began laughing in a way that sent the hairs down the back of Hermione's spine standing on end. She had learnt since attending Hogwarts this was magic in its weakest form, so much so that even muggles could access it. It told you when there was something wrong and/or dangerous. Hermione had a feeling whatever possessing Malfoy was both. His laughter cut off suddenly as he glared at Snape. "No."

Hermione involuntary swallowed. Alois laughing was scary but the tone of his voice caused her to tremble slightly. It was stupid. She had never been afraid of Malfoy before, so why should she be now? Then she remembered. This wasn't Malfoy. Not really. And none of them had a clue to what Malfoy … no, Alois, was capable of.

The blonde's lips pulled back into a smile that revealed a little two much teeth.

"Alois," Harry said quietly from where he had been forgotten.

Hermione let out the breath she had been holding. Harry would fix this. Whatever "this" was.

"Before you do anything, please do remember that he's human and his eye won't grow back like Hannah's. Besides, it's too early to be trying to was blood out of my clothes."

Okay. Harry wasn't going to fix it, Hermione realised, because this wasn't Harry. This was Ciel and apparently Ciel was blasé towards the serious and permanent injuries his friend could/would cause the professor.

"You're no fun Ciel." He paused and smirked to himself. "I liked you better when you were in the suitcase." Hermione's mind didn't know how to respond to that comment or the light blush that graced Ciel's cheeks. "Besides," Alois continued. "It's the blood that makes it fun."

Whatever Ciel would have said in response was cut off as Snape sent a stunner at Alois and, before Ciel could react, followed up with a second. The class was silent as they stared at the two unconscious bodies of their friends.

"What are you standing there for? Granger, you're a prefect. Go fetch Professor Dumbledore from his office. Ten points from Gryffindor for incompetence," Snape snapped, though Hermione had the feeling it was more to retain some semblance of normality than anything else. "And someone else go fetch Madame Pomfrey. Everyone else, OUT!"

There was a scrambling as everyone left the classroom, desiring to be far, far away when the pair woke up. As Hermione left to get Dumbledore, nearly tripping over someone's pet cat that was wandering the halls, she couldn't help feel a sense of foreboding that everything was about to change.

* * *

A/N 1: The title _Atropa Belladonna _comes from the latin name for Belladonna (deadly nightshade). There are several reasons why I thought it was good for the title. The name belladonna comes from the italian 'beautiful woman' as woman put it in thier eyes to dilate them, which was attractive at the time and Ciel and Alois are very beautiful. :D. Belladonna is also a very strong poison and dangerous like the boys, however it was also used in medicines, doing good depite that, like Ciel as the queen's dog. And finally in folklore belladonna was used in witches' potions. I thought it appropriate.


End file.
